Paper-Conference | Marc Schulder

Exploring Aspects of Spontaneous Signing in the DGS Corpus

Abstract

Most use of sign language is spontaneous, unplanned, embedded in a one-to-one situation and transient. General sign language corpora aim at such naturalistic data. Thus it can be expected that they include phenomena of spontaneous language similar to the ones described for spontaneous speech in vocal languages: that is, (dis)fluencies such as pauses, hesitations, errors, false starts and repairs as well as discourse markers. In this paper we explore which of the known phenomena of spontaneous language from previous research on vocal and sign languages could be identified in the DGS Corpus using the annotations at hand. We describe our search strategies, consider additional annotation tiers for spontaneous language, and provide examples for the phenomena identified.

Maria Kopf, Reiner Konrad, Gabriele Langer, Marc Schulder, Lutz König

Generations in the DGS Corpus: Evolving Outreach Activities and Cross-Generational Stories on Social Media in a Long-Term Corpus Project

Abstract

Social media has become a powerful tool for research projects, community outreach, science communication, and to recruit participants. Due to its differences to traditional media and presentation modes, it provides a particular focus on producing very concise content that is entertaining and accessible while staying informative. In this paper, we describe how the long-term project DGS-Korpus, creators of a corpus and dictionary of German Sign Language, evolved its outreach strategies over time. One unique aspect of its unusually long project run-time of nineteen years is that it has involved several cases of multiple family members participating in the project at different points in time, resulting in cross-generational participation. The paper describes how the project’s social media campaign uses these cross-generational connections to illustrate important aspects of the project, such as its relevance for cultural heritage and language identity, the different ways that members of the German deaf community were and are involved in the project, and its relevance to interpersonal connections.

Anike Fiedler, Marc Schulder, Julian Bleicken, Annika Herrmann

Introducing VISTA-SL: A Multilingual e-Learning Platform for Deaf and Hearing Learners of Sign Languages

Abstract

This article introduces the VISTA-SL project, which aims to create an integrated e-learning platform for four European sign languages: German Sign Language, Greek Sign Language, Irish Sign Language, and Dutch Sign Language. Designed as a complement to face-to-face classes, the VISTA-SL platform will combine expertise in sign language education and education technologies to provide an adaptive and interactive learning environment suitable for deaf, hard of hearing and hearing users seeking to learn a sign language, whether it constitutes their first language or not. Building on a co-ordinated curriculum that covers vocabulary, grammar and Deaf culture materials, the platform will provide video material presented by deaf L1 signers, together with games and gamification features to motivate learning, while also providing several assistive technologies. By leveraging cutting edge language processing and computer vision approaches, the platform will provide augmented reality feedback, 3D avatars and an LLM-based virtual instructor, as part of the learning environment. VISTA-SL is developed in collaboration with end-user focus groups, comprising deaf, hard of hearing and hearing individuals. This will serve to ensure that the educational platform aligns with the expectations and needs of its intended users.

Irene Murtagh, Marc Schulder, Annika Herrmann, Liona Paulus, Julian Bleicken, Kostas Blekos, Athanasios Konstantakopoulos, Klimis Antzakas, Dimitrios Kosmopoulos, Eva Valls, Ricardo Marques, Josep Blat, Konstantinos Karampidis, Ben Elsendoorn

Making Sign Language Research Findable: The sign-lang@LREC Anthology and the Sign Language Dataset Compendium

Abstract

Resources and research on sign languages are sparse and can often be difficult to locate. Few centralised sources of information exist. This article presents two repositories that aim to improve the findability of such information through the implementation of open science best practices. The sign-lang@LREC Anthology is a repository of publications on sign languages in the series of sign-lang@LREC workshops and related events, enhanced with indices cataloguing what datasets, tools, languages and projects are addressed by these publications. The Sign Language Dataset Compendium provides an overview of existing linguistic corpora, lexical resources and data collection tasks. We describe the evolution of these repositories, covering topics such as supplementary information structures, rich metadata, interoperability, and dealing with the challenges of reference rot.

Marc Schulder, Thomas Hanke, Maria Kopf

Corpus à la carte – Improving Access to the Public DGS Corpus

Abstract

This article presents the fourth release of the Public DGS Corpus, a large corpus of German Sign Language (DGS). Since its first release in 2018, the Public DGS Corpus has provided its content through multiple portals to meet the needs of different user groups. Having started with a community portal and a research portal for general data access, the ANNIS portal for dynamic web-based exploration of the corpus was added in 2022. With this latest release, a fourth portal is added to allow sign language linguists to access the public corpus directly through the annotation software iLex. Furthermore, search capabilities and interconnectedness between the portals are strongly improved, allowing users to move between portals to combine their strengths. Additional improvements to the corpus include additional recordings, new pose information models, improved HamNoSys, enhanced type information and web interface revisions.

Reiner Konrad, Thomas Hanke, Amy Isard, Marc Schulder, Lutz König, Julian Bleicken, Oliver Böse

Signs and Synonymity: Continuing Development of the Multilingual Sign Language Wordnet

Abstract

The Multilingual Sign Language Wordnet is the first publicly available wordnet resource for sign languages. It is a growing multilingual resource providing data for eight sign languages to date. During the initial phase of its creation, the focus lay on producing the infrastructure to support various languages and to produce initial sets of content for them. This article represents the start of the second phase, in which the focus is moved to establishing overlapping coverage across the different sign languages. Building on the data produced so far, a new feature to assist annotation is introduced which leverages established partial synonymy between signs (inter- and cross-lingually) to discover likely additional synonymies. Other improvements to the annotation interface and workflow build directly on the experiences from the first phase. Working with the updated annotation interface, new data is produced for Polish Sign Language, Greek Sign Language and Swedish Sign Language.

Marc Schulder, Sam Bigeard, Maria Kopf, Thomas Hanke, Anna Kuder, Joanna Wójcicka, Johanna Mesch, Thomas Björkstrand, Anna Vacalopoulou, Kyriaki Vasilaki, Theodoros Goulas, Athanasia-Lida Dimou, Stavroula-Evita Fotinea, Eleni Efthimiou

Not just 'any' sign! Searching for negative polarity items in German Sign Language (DGS)

Abstract

Negative Polarity Items (NPIs) are expressions such as “any” that cannot occur in positive assertions with simple past (“Mary bought any books”), but become acceptable under the scope of negation (“Mary didn’t buy any books”). While NPIs have been claimed to occur in virtually every language, evidence for their use in signed languages is still very limited. Our study seeks to identify potential NPI candidates in German Sign Language (DGS) by performing a collocation analysis of negation signs in the DGS Corpus dataset.

Cornelia Loos, Marc Schulder

EASIER Notation – A Proposal for a Gloss-based Scripting Language for Sign Language Generation Based on Lexical Data

This article is ©2023 IEEE. I recommend using the accepted version of the paper, which is open access. For the closed access published version follow the URL in the citation below, but note that most hyperlinks have been broken in that version. The accepted version does not have this problem.

Abstract

We introduce EASIER Notation, a gloss-based scripting language to describe sign language content to be signed by an avatar and describe the functionality a lexical database for a sign language needs to provide in order to fully support the notation approach. In addition, we present the prototype of a text editor supporting EASIER Notation for human post-editing of machine translation output as well as pre-scribing signed utterances from scratch.

Thomas Hanke, Lutz König, Reiner Konrad, Maria Kopf, Marc Schulder, Rosalee Wolfe

The Sign Language Interchange Format: Harmonising Sign Language Datasets for Computational Processing

This article is ©2023 IEEE. I recommend using the accepted version of the paper, which is open access. For the closed access published version follow the URL in the citation below, but note that most hyperlinks have been broken in that version. The accepted version does not have this problem.

Abstract

We introduce the Sign Language Interchange Format, a new format for representing annotations and lexical inventories of sign language datasets. The format is designed as an intermediate step in data preparation for language technologies, unifying the annotation conventions of different corpora for further use. Complex gloss notations and implicit relations between tiers are made explicit through a hierarchy of machine-readable container structures. Sample implementations for converting to and from the new format are provided.

Marc Schulder, Sam Bigeard, Thomas Hanke, Maria Kopf

Deutsche Gebärdensprache zugänglich und nutzbar machen: Das Öffentliche DGS-Korpus und das Digitale Wörterbuch der Deutschen Gebärdensprache

This article is only available in German.

Abstract

Das DGS-Korpus-Projekt erstellt ein Referenzkorpus der Deutschen Gebärdensprache (DGS) und macht mit dem Öffentlichen DGS-Korpus und dem korpusbasierten Wörterbuch der DGS diese Sprache in ihrer Vielfalt öffentlich zugänglich. Um den verschiedenen Nutzungsaspekten gerecht zu werden, stehen die Daten des Öffentlichen Korpus in drei verschiedenen Portalen zur Verfügung. Inhalte des Wörterbuchs werden bereits als Vorabeinträge veröffentlicht. Der Artikel gibt einen Überblick über die Inhalte und Funktionen der drei Portale sowie des Wörterbuchs, die untereinander verlinkt sind.

Reiner Konrad, Julian Bleicken, Calvin Khan, Amy Isard, Gabriele Langer, Anke Müller, Marc Schulder